A three-time U.S. Olympian whose illustrious running career has included a Nike TV commercial, a swimsuit calendar, and ongoing promotional work for Disney has spent the last year doubling as a $600-an-hour call girl, an astounding secret life that she now regretfully calls a “huge mistake.”

Beginning last December, Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, has worked with one of Las Vegas’s premier escort services, booking scores of “dates” in Sin City and other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

While Favor Hamilton (seen at right) has used an alias, “Kelly Lundy,” when working as an escort, she inexplicably shared her true identity with several male clients, believing that her secret was somehow safe with strangers who paid for her company by leaving envelopes stuffed with cash on bathroom vanities in swanky hotels.

When approached by a reporter earlier this month in the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel, Favor Hamilton initially denied any connection with the escort service, Haley Heston’s Private Collection. But Favor Hamilton–who is married to her college sweetheart, a lawyer, and is the mother of a seven-year-old girl–eventually acknowledged her work as “Kelly.”

“I take full responsibility for my mistakes. I’m not the victim and I’m not going that route,” Favor Hamilton said. “I’m owning up to what I did. I would not blame anybody except myself.” She added, “Everybody in this world makes mistakes. I made a huge mistake. Huge.”

Wo-HO! Wow, this is juicy stuff. Hamilton is the most decorated female athlete in NCAA track-and-field history, a three-time Olympian, and a seven-time U.S. champion. I (and many of you out there, probably) remember Hamilton well from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, mainly for tripping during the 1500m women's final, and for this commercial right here:

And I (and mainly of you out there, probably) did not expect her to follow that stint in the spotlight as a $600-PER-HOUR escort in Las Vegas. All while having a husband and a seven-year-old kid, who I feel really sorry for right now.

Hamilton explains in the story that she went through dark times after giving birth to her seven-year-old daughter in 2005, going through post-partum depresssion and getting prescribed Zoloft. She found the escort business as a way to treat what amounted to a midlife crisis. The only problem is, she told several of her clients who she really was, and they, naturally, bragged to everyone they knew that they had slept with Favor Hamilton.

All that being said, though, no slut-shaming for us. We hope she enjoyed her time at Haley Heston’s Private Collection, and that she finds a way to move on from this. Because, damn, is this a crazy story.